I
immensely enjoyed Roman Mars' speech on flag design. I thought his tone came
off as playful but serious at the same time. Another advantage his speech had
was that he managed to criticize without being overly offensive. One could tell
that he had the support of the audience from their laughter during his criticisms.
Actually, I find his ability to criticize without offending to be an
extraordinary feat due to the overly-loyal reactions of many Americans in terms
of their cities and its accomplishments. For example, whenever someone tends to
criticize something about St. Louis (this may just be St. Louis citizens,
though), one will likely lash out and totally ignore the criticism, no matter
how founded it might be. In addition, I thought the sound effects were all
well-used and perfectly placed throughout the speech to add an emotional and
uplifting mood to the speech.
In
terms of flag designing, the St. Louis flag is already expertly designed. If it
were to enhanced, there might not be much to correct. However, I think it would
interesting to add an element of the bountiful Irish settlement of most descendants
today. Even today, St. Louis (especially Dog Town) has a large Irish population
that is highly celebrated. In addition, our original founders were French,
since St. Louis was part of the Louisiana Purchase. Another interesting event
from the past that could be represented could be our history of being explored
by Louis and Clark. Although St. Louis has other large immigrant populations, I
would not want to upset another substantial portion of those descended from
immigrants. So, in order to appease them, I propose we represent the overall
concept of St. Louis being an immigrant city by using a symbol on the flag that
represents immigration. For example, it might suffice to include a picture of two
hands shaking in the center of the flag, which would take up the majority of
the flag. Another correction could be to have the hands be of two different
races, Caucasian and African American.
Although
there are many other races represented in St. Louis (as mentioned before), St.
Louis has been a historical location for racial issues, including the court
decision of Dred Scott to be sold back into slavery. Today, there are several
high tensions in the urban areas of St. Louis that revolve around Caucasian on
African American violence. For example, Ferguson caught the attention of the
world during its riots and the shooting of Michael Brown, a cherished member of
the African American community in Ferguson. In order to show the world and the
rest of the United States that St. Louis truly cares about their racial
relationships, the one hand could be African American while the other would be
Caucasian. By showing two different races shaking hands, St. Louis would be
seen as a possible future location of civil rights improvements and demonstrations.
In
all, the new St. Louis flag could be on a white background with two hands different
races shaking on the front and center and would take up most of the space. In
each corner, there could be brief colors to signify the French heritage of its
founding. For example, one corner and its corresponding corner below it could
show two colors. The top of the left side hand of the flag would be blue while
the left hand bottom of the flag would be red, which are the colors of the
French flag. The right hand top corner of the flag would be red while the lower
right bottom corner would be blue.
I like the idea of having two different races represented on the flag, however, I don't know how you could do it without it seeming offensive to those who aren't either of the races being represented. It might seem that, if one hand is white, then the flag is ignoring the obvious racial tension that is present in the city. I like the idea of the colors paying homage to the French flag, though, and I think that it is a good idea to have them on the flag.
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